Saturday, January 24, 2015

Economy: The Merits Of Private Spaceflight

(Drivebycuriosity) - There is much ado about the one percent. It is obvious that the outrageous wealth of the billionaires causes a lot of envy. But at least some of the nabobs use their money for an important mission which is neglected by the governments: Preparing manned spaceflight.

Richard Branson owns Virgin Galactic, a British commercial spaceflight company and part of his huge Virgin Group. Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla (electric cars) owns SpaceX and Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com, owns the aerospace company Blue Origin (VirginmuskOrigin).

All those companies are developing independently from each other rockets for space flights. Branson, Musk & Bezos all want to use these crafts to travel someday in outer space. They all also plan to turn their costly hobbies into businesses and offer space flights for everyone.

I think the 3 billionaires do a service for whole world by risking their private money for space flights. The former super powers don`t care much about manned space flights any more. Russia is running out of money and the NASA also is shutting down on spaceflights, because the Obama administration wants to save money and has other priorities. Therefore the private space investors are filling a gap.

I am convinced manned space flight is necessary because it inspires more than sending just robots into space. Humans evolved because they have always been curious, took risks and explored new territories. The first man in space and then on the moon gave a lot of stimulus to science & human progress.

Investments in the highly sophisticated space technology will foster technological progress and scientific knowledge. The involved engineers, scientists and others will learn how to control & operate complex systems over a long distance. This knowledge could be used to advance the technological sector (computer, communication systems, software, internet, robotics, chemistry and more) which is stimulating economic growth. Manned space flight could also encourage coming generations to expand their knowledge and advance their skills.

I also believe that it is a good thing that the 3 billionaires are working independently and are competing against each other. Competition forces to control costs and to get better all the time. If one of the investors makes mistakes, the others could learn from that and avoid false investments and scientific blind alleys.

Thanks a lot to Richard Branson, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos for your courage and dedication.